St. Louis

This week’s 5 on Friday we spoke with the owner of the St. Louis, MO based food truck, StLouisianaQ. We wanted to learn more about them, their food and why they’ve decided to join the initiative Fighting Hunger In America – and share it with our readers.

Chef Papa T: I have had many years of Chef experience; started out as a US Navy cook doing 3 tours in Viet Nam, went to Chef school in Europe, opened and head cheffed at a St Louis restaurant, opened and was executive chef in Panama, FL… then got out of the business for a while. But, I always loved good food and loved cooking for people – plus the wonders of mobile food and bringing it to new people each day drew me in.

MC: What was the inspiration for your menu and how did you settle on your food offerings?

CPT: I was born and raised in Louisiana, and have lived in St. Louis most of my adult life, so I offer a blend of Louisiana and St. Louis cuisine. I do not do Cajun or Creole on the truck… I bring good Louisiana southern style cooking.

MC: Do you have a favorite moment since opening your food truck?

CPT: My first big food truck event was an eye opener! Looking out the service window and seeing a sea of hungry people waiting to try our StLouisianaQ was just awesome! That first time you get slammed – and the truck looks like an explosion at the end of food service – is just unbelievable!

MC: What are your plans for the future? Where do you see yourself and your food truck in 2 and 5 years?

CPT: Right now we are switching over to a new and improved version of StLouisianaQ a truck instead of a trailer. We have been fitting it since the end of 2013, and we should be rolling it out in the summer of 2014. We are anticipating major growth over the next 2 to 5 years as more companies get hip to the idea of bringing lunch to their work place, and events decide to bring a food truck to their venue.

MC: What one tip or piece of advice do you wish you had been given before opening your food truck?

CPT: We really should have done more research to see what the qualifications were for joining the St Louis Food Truck Association. We have been unable to join because we are a trailer – a $60K state of the art stainless steel interrior mobile kitchen, but a trailer nonetheless- and surprise to us, this association does not allow trailers. Because of this, we have been out of the loop for many businesses, events and venues, and locked out of many major food truck rallys in the St Louis area. Because of this oversight, we have had to work twice as hard to make ourselves known and build our business.

BONUS: Why did you choose to join the food truck initiative Fighting Hunger In America? How do you plan to encourage donations?

CPT: We are all about the idea “What goes around comes around” This is how we live our daily lives, and we want to always transfer that sentiment into StLouisianaQ. We plan on putting the initiative onto our Website and food truck – and encourage others to get involved.

StlouisianaQ

If you’d like more information about joining the Give Network Food Truck Fights Against Hunger, check out this article. If you join before May 31st, you will be entered in a chance to win a $500 gas card.

ST. LOUIS, MO - The food truck that travels around the St. Louis area is known for its sweets – gooey butter bars, rocky road cupcakes.

In fact, it serves a higher purpose – providing job training for people with head injuries and disorders such as autism.

Officials at the Center for Head Injury Services came up with the idea after the economy soured in 2008. The economic collapse made it even more difficult to find work for those with disabilities.

“So we decided to take matters into our own hands and create jobs,” the nonprofit’s Donna Gunning said. “Some people could pre-measure things, others might mix frosting or be good at the decorative part.”

Gunning opted for a food truck, and Destination Desserts was the result.

The nonprofit business began in 2012 with help from grants from the Kessler Foundation and Developmental Disabilities Resources. It sold 15,000 dozen cookies to corporations and others that first winter.

About a year ago the food truck actually hit the streets. The truck, retrofitted with a galley kitchen, is bright pink and decorated with drawings of cupcakes and cookies.

Laura Schweitzer, 30, who was injured in a shooting, once planned to be a language teacher. She now has found satisfaction decorating specialty sugar cookies.

Schweitzer wasn’t able to work quickly enough to keep a private-sector job, she said. She’s been at Destination Desserts since October.

“When my other job let me go, it was devastating for me,” she said. “Here I create some of the designs and decorate with much greater freedom.”

Destination Desserts had $68,000 in sales last year, and is on pace for $105,000 in 2014, program director Denise Samuels said.

The goal, Samuels said, is to train the disabled so they could graduate to private-sector jobs. So far, two workers have moved on, one to culinary school.

“I would love for that to happen more often, because we want to affect more people’s lives,” she said.

In our quest to keep our readers up to date with the latest stories relating to the food truck industry we have compiled a list of the stories that hit the wire this past weekend from Birmingham, St Louis, Madison, and Sacramento.

April 18

Food truck project could evolve into “food Incubator” for downtown – BIRMINGHAM, AL – The Tillman Levenson Annex was purchased and renovated last year to be a commissary and kitchen space for the Fresh Off the Bun food truck.

Brad Wardlaw, principal at SAS Architects helped to purchase the building for his wife, who owns the Birmingham food truck business.

The sun’s out, where are the St. Louis food trucks? – ST LOUIS, MO – Spring’s here, fish fries are winding down and our stomachs are grumbling. So when does food truck season officially start? And where can you find some of that delicious grub? We’ve got the rundown.

April 19

Madison selectmen to hold discussion on food trucks as opposition mounts – MADISON, CT - After initially bringing up the subject last summer, town officials seem to be getting set to take action on proposed rules by which, if passed, food truck vendors must abide.

The vendors have been a talking point in Madison, and the town is holding a public discussion on a draft of the rules later this month.

April 20

Sacramento’s food truck movement – SACRAMENTO, CA - Sacramento’s appetite for mobile food was fueled three years ago with the debut of SactoMoFo, a festival that rounds up popular food trucks from Northern California. The event has continually drawn thousands in search of mobile munchies who are willing to brave epic lines, while a series of weekly SactoMoFo events feeds Sacramento’s suburbs and business parks.

ST. LOUIS, MO - Churches on the Streets made news late last year when the Health Department shut them down for serving hot meals.

Now, the organization has a way to get around those rules—a food truck for the homeless.

“We had a gentleman who said, ‘Hey, I want to buy you a food truck,’” co-founder Angela Valdes says. “So, we’ve been working fervently to get that up to par. We got it painted with our lettering on so we’re now ready to roll on the streets and keep serving people.”

Volunteers will take the truck out every Monday night. The meet at 6:00 p.m. at 1600 North First Street, at Cotton Belt Rail Depot.

ST LOUIS, MO - You: “I sure could go for a chocolate minted marshmallow doughnut right now, but I don’t know where to find one.”

Your friend: “Coincidentally, I too would be interested in an artisanal doughnut at the moment, perhaps one with a maple glaze and candied bacon, but I am also unaware of where one might be procured.

Me: “You’re both in luck, because the doughnuts from popular doughnut truck Vincent Van Doughnut will soon be available at all Straub’s Markets. And why are you talking like that?

As reported in the Riverfront Times, the hip, where-is-it-now doughnut truck has inked a deal to sell their doughnuts at all four Straub’s Markets beginning Feb. 21. Eight flavors a day will be offered — Fridays through Sundays only, at least at first — on a rotating basis. The flavors might include such favorites as chocolate salted caramel, French toast (their most popular flavor), and creme brulée.

ST. LOUIS, MO – Although the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox are showing some of their best stuff on the mound for the World Series, food trucks from both cities are in a heated series, too.

Food trucks from each city are serving up World Series-inspired dishes and the public can vote on their favorites—or in some cases, their favorite city’s truck.

From the “Holliday Caramel Apple” from Holy Crepe! To the “Yadi Brau” at My Big Fat Greek Truck, these dishes showcase what St. Louis has to offer.

Food Truck Throwdown, which is a website that hosts a number of food rivalries, including past smackdowns between Boston and New York City. According to its Facebook page, the throwdown offices are located in Boston.

In the latest update, St. Louis leads Boston in the throwdown, 1,287 to 783 with Sarah’s Cake Stop’s “Rally Cap” Snack Cakes comfortably in the top spot.

ST LOUIS, MO – Roaming Hunger, a website and iPhone app that tracks food-truck locations, has added St. Louis to its lengthening list of cities and vendors.

The site is the brainchild of Ross Resnick, a 28-year old with a background in marketing and a profound love of street food.

Resnick, who lives in Los Angeles, launched Roaming Hunger back in 2009 with maps and information about food trucks in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Today the site maps more than 2,800 trucks in 30 cities. St. Louis is slated to join the list on Wednesday, January 23, with Honolulu, Sacramento and Kansas City close behind.

“We’re really excited about adding St. Louis to the site,” Resnick says by phone from LA. “There are some great vendors there. We wait until there are about 25 to 30 vendors to add a city to the site, and St. Louis has been a slow creep up. Once a city reaches that point, though, it’s really possible for it to explode from there.”

In order to map a city’s food trucks (which in some cases number in the hundreds), Roaming Hunger scours social-media sites, extrapolates location data and plots it on Google maps. The St. Louis page is tracking 30 vendors, and as more food trucks pop up, they’ll be added to the list.

Resnick says his list has become a rite of passage for food trucks, whose operators often request to be added before they’re actually up and running. (He’ll add food trucks to Roaming Hunger’s radar when eaters suggest them as well.)

“We get so many letters and praise for the service,” he says. “It’s bigger than the individual vendor — it’s about creating a lifestyle and an entirely new way of eating that’s happening nationally and in pockets locally. We have these amazing trucks individually, but together it creates a really, really nice portfolio.”

Find the entire article by Kaitlin Steinberg at the Riverside Times <here>

Earlier this month we began polling our readers to help us determine their favorite dessert food truck. Our final poll had 12 dessert trucks to select from:

3 Girls Cupcakes – Kansas City, MO

BSweets Mobile – Los Angeles, CA

Flirty Cupcakes – Chicago, IL

Frozen Hoagies – Boston, MA

Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats – Washington DC

Sarah’s Cake Stop – St. Louis, MO

Street Sweets & Eats – Sal Lake City, UT

Sugar Shack Sweets – Little Rock, AR

Sweet Treats – Seattle, WA

Sweetery NYC – New York, NY

Trailercakes – Dallas, TX

Twirl & Dip – San Francisco, CA

Voting was consistent and very close during the entire 2 week voting period, and in a surprising twist the two Missouri trucks from the Kansas City and St. Louis areas were able to claim nearly 60% of the total votes. After counting the 5,600+ votes, Mobile Cuisine is proud to announce the 2012 Dessert Food Truck of the Year winner. With 29 percent of the overall vote (just 2 percent or 125 votes over second place) Sarah’s Cake Stop from St. Louis, MO has claimed the title.

We would like to congratulate the crew from Sarah’s Cake Stop and thank our readers for helping us with this poll. We will be providing a feature article on this truck later this week.

You may have missed it, but the mobile food industry is growing faster than anyone would have guessed two years ago. It can be difficult to keep up with the new trucks and carts as they pop up throughout the country. Because of this, Mobile Cuisine assists our readers weekly by posting the names and information about these trucks, so if they happen to be in your area, you can begin to follow them, or at least keep any eye out for them on the roads and cart pods.

You may have missed it, but the mobile food industry is growing faster than anyone would have guessed two years ago. It can be difficult to keep up with the new trucks and carts as they pop up throughout the country. Because of this, Mobile Cuisine Magazine assists our readers weekly by posting the names and information about these trucks, so if they happen to be in your area, you can begin to follow them, or at least keep any eye out for them on the roads and cart pods.

This week’s new entries are:

Atlanta, GA

Poor Huey’s

Twitter: @PoorHueys

Serving the best Sabrett hot dogs from Bronx, NY. Located in Woodruff Park downtown ATL for lunch Mon-Fri. Email for private or public catering events!